Taiwan: Taipei 101 revised for upgrading to LEED v4 system

CBRE, the world’s largest commercial real estate services provider, today announced its appointment as consultant to assist TAIPEI 101 as it seeks to renew its US Green Building Council (USGBC) LEED® for Existing Buildings Operations and Maintenance (LEED EB:OM) Platinum certification. TAIPEI 101 is taking the industry-leading step of upgrading to the new LEED v4 system—the newest version of the world’s leading benchmark for high-performance green buildings.

TAIPEI 101 was first awarded a LEED v2009 Platinum certification in July 2011 making it the tallest green building in the world, standing at 509 meters. It is anticipated that TAIPEI 101 will be the world’s first supertall building to attain a LEED v4 certification, as it continues to define itself internationally as a leader for commercial green building best practice. Supertall buildings are defined by the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat as being over 300 meters in height.

Given the significance of the project—being the largest office building to attempt LEED v4 recertification and the number of tenants involved—CBRE and TAIPEI 101 will also be collaborating with the USGBC to share insights into the recertification process, with monthly features to be posted on the USGBC website. This novel ‘behind the scenes’ disclosure will serve to help other teams undertaking LEED EB:OM recertification to the new LEED v4 system.

“We’re very pleased to be partnering with TAIPEI 101 again, helping one of the world’s truly iconic supertall buildings achieve green building standards never attempted in an asset of its class. It’s also very exciting that we’ll be working with the USGBC to share the experience and learnings from the process with LEED practitioners around the world in a way that hasn’t been done before. Hopefully, this will serve as an useful guide for teams looking to recertify buildings with LEED v4, and particularly those working on international projects,” said Tim Shen, Head of Sustainability Asia, and leader of the CBRE project team.

“TAIPEI 101 has always been committed to pursuing leadership on environmental and sustainability matters. There were no green building rating systems available when the building was designed, but LEED EB:OM enabled us to verify the building’s sustainability performance against international standards in 2011. LEED v4 provides us with a new framework with which to explore new concepts and demonstrate ongoing excellence,” said Cathy Yang, General Manager of TAIPEI 101 office tower.

“We knew the process would be challenging because of the significant changes between the old and new systems, and because we’re the first supertall building to undertake this. CBRE’s deep knowledge and track record with LEED EB:OM, their strong relationship with the USGBC, and their commitment in bringing us an international team of experts made them an ideal partner,” Ms Yang added.

CBRE has a specialist US-based consulting team that has certified 345 projects to-date, including 35 recertifications.

“Our work with TAIPEI 101 is another perfect example of CBRE’s ability to deliver innovative service offerings to our clients around the world. In this case, we are leveraging the industry-leading expertise of CBRE’s US LEED Existing Buildings certification team to support our CBRE Asia Sustainability colleagues in creating a successful solution for a high profile asset,” said CBRE’s US-based Director of Energy and Sustainability, Gary Thomas.

The project is the latest in a series of green collaborations, with CBRE having previously assisted TAIPEI 101 in implementing new sustainability standards, starting with introducing the WWF’s Earth Hour to Taiwan in 2009. TAIPEI 101 will again be leading this year’s Earth Hour campaign in Taiwan on March 28. In 2013, CBRE was the consultant and author of TAIPEI 101’s inaugural Corporate Sustainability report using Global Reporting Initiative standards.